Wes Anderson Directed Fantastic Mr. Fox By E-Mail?

Wes Anderson has always had a very unique directing style. His movies are less a representation of the real world and more a view of the world through Wes Anderson’s eyes, where people dress in vintage clothes and listen to Belle and Sebastian a whole lot. He’s one of the few directors whose movies can be easily picked out of a lineup by merely looking at a screen capture of a few of the characters and a setting.

Well, apparently that style is easier to convey than anyone could have imagined. According to Spectacular Attractions, who got their hands on an Empire interview with The Fantastic Mr. Fox cinematographer Tristan Oliver, Wes seems to be doing most of his directing via e-mail. And Tristan doesn’t seem to fancy it much. According to Oliver, “I think Wes doesn’t understand what you can do, and he often wants us to do what you can’t do, and the length of time the process takes.” He continues, “So we’ll get a note back from Wes saying, ‘that arm movement is wrong.’ But that arm movement is part of a fluid performance. And that has been really quite difficult for the animators.” I wish I could get a paycheck for emailing people.

If true, it's hard not to assume that this is why the footage and photos we’ve seen from the movie so far have felt a little lacking in quality. How can a director truly convey his vision via soulless electronic messages? Now I understand that this is the new age, where everything is done via the web and everyone’s lives are chronicled on Google’s cloud, but movies are a completely different medium. They require extensive care from a person who has clear ideas. Then again, maybe Wes is trying to revolutionize some new sort of Social Networking filmmaking. I doubt it.